


Cold Is the Water

by Shaitanah



Category: Naruto
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-08-08
Updated: 2011-08-08
Packaged: 2017-10-22 09:46:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 985
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/236715
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shaitanah/pseuds/Shaitanah
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Itachi, before and after Shisui. [pre-series/post-Chapter 550]</p>
            </blockquote>





	Cold Is the Water

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: Naruto belongs to Kishimoto Masashi. Obvious title from Timshel by Mumford and Sons.  
> A/N: I haven’t written for this fandom for over a year, I think. And this will likely be Kishimoto’ed in the next chapter. But… what the hell. ;)

“Would you kill me if they told you to?”

 

Typical Shisui, asking difficult questions at dinner. Because in his book, digestion never interferes with thought process.

 

Itachi should be just a kid. A kid would say, I don’t know. A kid would say, What the hell?

 

Itachi says: “If you went against the village.”

 

\--

 

“So what are you gonna do now?” Naruto asks, that warm light all drained out of him. Itachi can barely see him.

 

“I was planning to die heroically, helping you defeat Pain,” Itachi jokes, and Naruto cringes visibly at the d-word. Naruto is by no means a master of subtlety, but getting around that word feels like a priority now. “But you did quite well on your own.”

 

“He ain’t on his own, mothafucka!” Bee interjects. Naruto waits dutifully for the verse to go on, but the fight must have taken a lot out of the old man.

 

“You could, uh… come with us. Give Sasuke a heart attack.”

 

Because seeing his ex-traitor, semi-zombie of a brother would do wonders for Sasuke’s mental health. Shisui would have said, Oh, what the hell!

 

Itachi considers the offer and says quietly: “Sure.”

 

\--

 

“Would you kill me if I told you to?”

 

“What is this, a pop quiz?”

 

Trees rustle in the wind as the two shinobi flit through the forest. Itachi loves those trees. Sometimes he wonders at those unconditional feelings that the village appears to stir in him. Is it love? Or is it duty?

 

“You could always use that jutsu of yours and make me do it,” Itachi muses aloud. “But you wouldn’t. You know… there is a degree of freedom in choosing the time and the way of your death. We don’t have that freedom. But we can fight to make sure others do. Isn’t that curious?”

 

The soil is soft and pliant under the soles of their shoes as they land noiselessly into the mud. Sometimes Itachi wishes to have been born into a farmer’s family so that he could have loved the earth simply and purely without having to feed it blood.

 

“In the end, I wonder what is more gratifying: to be free or to have the power to set others free.”

 

Shisui looks at him and says: “When did you become so smart?” And that does not sound like a compliment.

 

\--

 

Itachi likes Naruto. He is a complete opposite of any Uchiha, but at the same time he is the duplicate of Shisui coming in brighter colours.

 

Itachi had once asked him if he would kill Sasuke for the sake of protecting Konoha. Naruto had said no. It was the least Itachi could hope for.

 

In a sense (and he knows that now), all his answers to Shisui’s questions had held the underlying _no_.

 

\--

 

“Would you kill me if I asked you to?”

 

There is a difference rooted in a single word, the difference between an order and a request. Shinobi don’t get much of the latter.

 

Itachi says, “Yes,” and thinks: _maybe_.

 

\--

 

Killer Bee attempts to pick a word that rhymes with “zombie”.

 

“What?” he asks when Naruto flashes him a strange look. “Too soon? How about ‘Edo Tensei’ then?” He doesn’t get further than “hey! hey! hey!”

 

“Next time you wanna help,” Naruto tells Itachi, “please, find an easier way than to make me swallow and then cough up an entire freaking _bird_!”

 

Shisui would say, Fair enough. Itachi chuckles.

 

\--

 

Shisui is missing an eye. Itachi is missing a clan meeting. All that seems vastly unimportant.

 

“What happened?” Itachi asks, even though he knows the answer. He cannot bring himself to look away from thick smears of blood on Shisui’s cheek.

 

“Danzou happened,” Shisui spits irritably, as if complaining about bad weather or lousy service in that sweets shop he and Itachi have come to favour. “We gotta do this now, little brother. You’ll have to take the other one. Hide it. Or… whatever. Just don’t let that old fart get it.” He sounds hysterical now, bubbling with emotion just below the surface. He grins widely; even his teeth are stained with blood. “Hey, I’ve just written a suicide note. It says, blah-blah-blah, you have issues and I have issues and so I’m dead.”

 

“You’re going to kill yourself,” Itachi half-asks.

 

“No, I’m gonna pack my bags and run for the hills,” Shisui snaps. They both know it isn’t an option. “I’m asking you.”

 

Oh yes. They did have this conversation. Itachi promised to be on Shisui’s side because Shisui has always been on his.

 

“All right.” He nods. His body exhibits no abnormal responses. No tightness in his chest, no dryness in his mouth. No man should be this used to death, but Itachi, at his young age, is. “Where?”

 

“I was thinking here. I’ve always liked it. And I can’t swim very well.”

 

Shisui kneels on the bank of the Nakano river and sheds a few accidental drops of blood into its quietly rustling water.

 

“We benefit from this, right?” he says, without turning to look at Itachi. “I need to die and you need to upgrade your Sharingan.” Spoken like it’s all _just business_. Which, in a way, it is. “Isn’t it the weirdest thing we’ve ever done together?”

 

Itachi wants to say, no, the weirdest thing was setting off firecrackers in the Nakano shrine. Because to them, normal things, mundane things, nice things – that’s what’s weird. Not death. Not blood dripping from an empty eye socket. There is nothing unnatural about Shisui’s “let’s do this”, which sounds like an invitation to have some dango and go stargazing.

 

“Hurts like a bitch,” Shisui adds matter-of-factly. “And I’m not a fan of goodbyes.”

 

\--

 

Naruto doesn’t ask why Itachi was unable to kill Sasuke. He knows; and Itachi knows that he does. And he is grateful that someone understands.

 

He also knows that when they meet, Sasuke _will_ ask.

 

 _August 7–8, 2011_


End file.
